I agree with everything you said and I am happy to hear your progress. That being said, I am of the opinion that old age makes incomprehensible cranks of us all. Too much time, not enough similar cultural touchstones, etc.

Friendship is a difficult thing and rarely comes out of politics. Too much jockeying and signalling. You'd be better off trying to make friends at a dart league, even if you have to deal with the occasional off-color comment or stupid political opinion. However, in my experience you'll find people are, in general, more accepting of weird leftist bullshit than you'd think, and are even more accepting of it if they already like you for other reasons.